Bomb attack kills two soldiers in Mount Chaambi, Tunisia

Two soldiers have been killed in an explosion, a local security official told Al Arabiya news channel

Two Tunisian soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb attack on Thursday in Mount Chaambi, near the Algerian border, AFP reported.

"At around 7:45 am (0645 GMT), two soldiers were killed and two others wounded when a device exploded as their vehicle passed by in the area of Doghra of Mount Chaambi," said spokesman Mokhtar Ben Nasr.

In the past six weeks, around 20 soldiers have been wounded in landmine explosions blamed on religious extremists. The Tunisian military has been hunting the Mount Chaambi region for forces loyal to al-Qaeda since December 2012.

The Interior Ministry released a statement last week that said Ansar al-Sharia are thought to be present in the region.

The group has been blamed for numerous acts of violence across Tunisia since the 2011 revolution but has previously denied having a presence in the Mount Chaambi region.